ACM President's Award Honors Leading Proponent Of Computer Security, Ethics, And Safety
ACM PRESIDENT'S AWARD HONORS LEADING PROPONENT OF COMPUTER SECURITY, ETHICS, AND SAFETY
New York, NY - April 3, 2007 - The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) has recognized Eugene H. Spafford with the 2007 ACM President's Award for his long and effective leadership on issues of computer security and policy, professional responsibility, and the Internet. Professor Spafford is an internationally recognized expert on information security, computer crime investigation, and information ethics. He is known for his writing, research, and teaching, and as an invited speaker at seminars, conferences, and Congressional hearings. A professor with a joint appointment in Computer Science and in Electrical and Computer Engineering at Purdue University, Professor Spafford is founder and Executive Director of the Purdue CERIAS (Center for Education and Research in Information Assurance and Security), and chairs the ACM U.S. Public Policy Committee (USACM) http://www.acm.org/usacm/.
Recipients of the ACM Presidents Award, a rarely bestowed honor, have demonstrated their exceptional abilities to advance computing technology and enhance its impact for the benefit of society through generosity, creativity and dedication to their respective missions. The award will be presented at ACM's Annual Awards Banquet on June 9, in San Diego, CA.
Professor Spafford, considered one of the most influential leaders in information security, is being cited for his extensive and continuing record of service to the computing community, including major companies and government agencies. He was a member of the President's Information Technology Advisory Committee (PITAC) from 2003-2005. He was also a senior advisor to the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Assistant Director of the CISE (Computer and Information Sciences and Engineering) Directorate during the 2003-2004 academic year. In addition, Professor Spafford has been a senior advisor and consultant on security, cybercrime, and policy issues to several agencies, including the U.S. Air Force, the National Security Agency, the Government Accountability Office, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Department of Energy. He has testified on numerous occasions before various committees of the U.S. House of Representatives on information security and public policy issues.
Professor Spafford's research focuses on computer systems reliability and the consequences of computer failures. His research has covered a variety of topics including software debugging, intrusion detection, digital crime forensics, professional ethics, firewalls, security management, and secure architectures. This work has resulted in the development of some commercial products, and has produced more than 100 published articles and reports, several patents, and 18 Ph.D. graduates (to date). With his students, Professor Spafford has developed tools used worldwide for managing system security, including COPS, the first publicly available security scanner, and Tripwire, the first free intrusion detection system distributed on the Internet. As a member of the Computing Research Association Board of Directors, he chaired its Grand Challenges Conference in 2003, which called for eliminating epidemic-style attacks from viruses, worms, and email spam within 10 years.
Among Professor Spafford's research and service honors are the 2006 Outstanding Contribution Award of the ACM Special Interest Group on Security, Audit and Control (SIGSAC); the 2004 Making a Difference Award of the ACM Special Interest Group on Computing and Society (SIGCAS); and the 2006 IEEE Computer Society Technical Achievement Award. In 2000, he received the National Computer Systems Security Award from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the National Computer Security Center (NCSC), and was named to the Information Systems Security Association (ISSA) Hall of Fame in 2001. He is a Fellow of ACM, the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), and the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE). He has also been recognized with several awards in education, including the 2004 IEEE Taylor L. Booth Medal, and the top three awards for teaching at Purdue University.
A graduate of the State University College at Brockport in New York with a B.A. degree in Mathematics and Computer Science, Professor Spafford was awarded M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from Georgia Institute of Technology, and an honorary D.SC. from the State University of New York (SUNY). He is an Adjunct Professor of Computer Science at the University of Texas at San Antonio, and is Executive Director of the Advisory Board of the its new Institute for Information Assurance.
About ACM
ACM, the Association for Computing Machinery http://www.acm.org, is an educational and scientific society uniting the world's computing educators, researchers and professionals to inspire dialogue, share resources and address the field's challenges. ACM strengthens the profession's collective voice through strong leadership, promotion of the highest standards, and recognition of technical excellence. ACM supports the professional growth of its members by providing opportunities for life-long learning, career development, and professional networking.